1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus, a storage medium, and a program, for processing a video signal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus, a storage medium, and a program, for processing a video signal including a commercial.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is very popular to record a television program on a video cassette and play back the program recorded on the video cassette at an arbitrary time. A video cassette recorder has various functions convenient for a user to play back recorded television programs. One of them is a function of skipping a commercial (hereinafter, also referred to a CM). In most free broadcast programs, a commercial is inserted between a main program and another following main program or inserted in the middle of a main program (hereinafter, such a commercial will be generically referred to as a commercial inserted in a main program). However, many users want to skip commercials and view only main programs. In order to meet such a need, many video cassette recorders have a capability of skipping commercials.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a television broadcast program including a main program and commercials. In FIG. 1, each rectangle denotes a moving image corresponding to a predetermined period of time. In the following figures, similar rectangles are used to denote similar moving images.
In FIG. 1, periods P1, P2, and P3 denote periods in which the main program is displayed, and periods C1 and C2 denote periods in which commercials are displayed. When a user simply watches a television broadcast program configured in such a manner without recording it on a video cassette or the like, the user views the program in the same order as that in which the original television broadcast program is configured, that is, in the order of the man program in the period P1, the commercial in the period C1, the main program in the period P2, the commercial in the period C2, and the main program in the period P3.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a manner in which the television program shown in FIG. 1 is played back after being recorded. In FIG. 2, periods P1, P2, and P3 denote periods in which recorded main program is displayed, and periods C1 and C2 denote periods in which recorded commercials are displayed. When the recorded program is played back in a normal mode, the recorded program is played back at a normal playback speed in the order of the main program in the period P1, the commercial in the period C1, the main program in the period P2, the commercial in the period C2, and the main program in the period P3. When the program is played back using the function of skipping commercials, the main program corresponding to the period P1 is played back at the normal speed, and then the following commercial corresponding to the period C1 is played back at a higher speed than the normal playback speed. Thereafter, the main program corresponding to the period P2 is played back at the normal speed, and the commercial corresponding to the period C2 is then played back at the high speed. The main program corresponding to the period P3 is then played back at the normal speed. Thus, the commercials are played back in a shorter time than in the normal mode. Therefore, the user does not have to spend a long time to view commercials and can usefully spend the time to enjoy the main program.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a manner of playing back the television broadcast program shown in FIG. 1 recorded on a random access storage medium such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) or an HDD (Hard Disk Drive). In a normal playback mode, the recorded program is played back at a normal playback speed in the following order: the main program in the period P1, the commercial in the period C1, the main program in the period P2, the commercial in the period C2, and the main program in the period P3. When the program is played back using the function of skipping commercials, in addition to the manner described above with reference to FIG. 2, the program can also be played back as follows. After the main program corresponding to the period P1 is played back at the normal speed, the following commercial corresponding to the period C1 is skipped without being played back, and the main program corresponding to the period P2 is played back at the normal speed. The following commercial corresponding to the period C2 is skipped without being played back, and the main program corresponding to the period P3 is played back at the normal speed. When a video cassette is used, it cannot be randomly accessed because of the nature of a tape medium, and thus commercials are simply played back at a higher speed in the commercial-skip mode than the normal speed. In contrast, when a random access storage medium such as a DVD or an HDD is used, it is possible to play back only desired main programs without playing back any commercial.
Because commercials are not played back at all, a user does not have to spend any time for commercials and the user can spend all his/her time to enjoy the main program.
By using the random access capability in recording or editing, it is possible to construct or reconstruct a recorded television program so as to include only main programs. More specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, a recorded program may be configured such that only the main program corresponding to the period P1, the main program corresponding to the period P2, and the main program corresponding to the period P3 are recorded continuously without recording commercials corresponding to the periods C1 and C2. The configuration of the recorded programs including no commercial allows a reduction in necessary storage space of a storage medium such as a DVD or an HDD. A storage medium on which a program is recorded in such a manner can also be played back using another player. Also in this case, a user can enjoy the main program including no commercials.
In a known technique, a sequence of broadcast data is stored in a storage unit together with data indicating the order in which the broadcast data is supplied. When the broadcast data is played back, a commercial detector detects commercials in the broadcast data on the basis of identification information included in the broadcast data, and all detected commercial data are first read and corresponding images and voice/sound are played back by a playback unit. After all commercials are played back, the sequence of broadcast data including no commercials is read from the storage unit and played back by the playback unit (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-325226).
However, if the capability of playing back only main programs without playing back commercials at all becomes very popular, the result can be a collapse of charge-free broadcast services. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an outline of a business model of charge-free broadcasting. A sponsor 1 requests a broadcast station 2 to broadcast an advertisement program (commercial) to promote sales of a product or service 4. The broadcast station 2 charges the sponsor 1 for the broadcasting of the commercial. The broadcast station 2 produces a television program that can attract a user 3 and inserts a commercial in the television program.
When the user views the television program broadcasted from the broadcast station 2, the user 3 also views the commercial inserted in the main television program. The commercial attracts attention of the user 3 to the product or service 4 provided by the sponsor 1. If the user 3 gets interested in the product or service 4 and buys it from the sponsor 3, a charge for the product or service 4 is paid to the sponsor 1. A part of the charge paid to the sponsor 3 is used by the sponsor 1 to pay the charge for the commercial to the broadcast station 2. That is, although the user 3 does not directly pay a charge for television programs to the broadcast station 2, the user 3 indirectly pays the charge via the sponsor 1 by buying the product or service 4.
If the capability described above with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, that is, recording apparatus having the capability of viewing only main television programs without viewing commercials becomes popular, the user 3 no longer views commercials that are broadcasted by the broadcast station 2 in response to a request from the sponsor 1. As a result, commercials have no contribution to promotion of sales of the product or service 4. The sponsor 1 cannot pay a high charge for commercials useless for promotion of sales, and thus the sponsor 1 reduces or terminates advertisement. Because the broadcast station 2 needs an income from the sponsor 1 to produce a television program, the reduction in income from the sponsor 1 results in a reduction in expense that can be used to produce the television program.
The result is that attractive television programs disappear and the user 3 no longer views television. If the user 3 does not view television programs, broadcasting of commercials becomes completely useless for promotion of sales of the product or service 4. As a result, the sponsor 1 further reduces commercials. Thus, a vicious spiral occurs. As described above, the charge-free broadcasting is possible only when users 3 view commercials, and no television programs can be produced if users do not view commercials. From this point of view, it is undesirable to remove commercials when recording or playing back television programs.
On the other hand, however, there is a great need for a recording apparatus capable of removing commercials.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a technique that allows a user to continuously view a main television program without a break and that allows a commercial to be presented to the user. It is another object of the present invention to provide a technique that allows a user to return to a main program after a short commercial break.